Fecacacophany:msupf: rpm: Now That's What I Call a Taco!: It's scary to think about how much money those guys would get from me if I could just download and print out new sets whenever I felt like it.

You can download a good chunk of the instructions at the lego site. Buy pieces in bulk, download the instructions (for free).

Too many sets require pieces that are not sold in any bulk or grab-bag forms. And of you can find the pieces you need, they are way more costly than they are worth

You are mistaken

Get your instructions here.

I'm going to stand by my statement for the most part. Special parts are more available than they used to be, but pricing out building a set without counting generic pieces, it came to $300+ for the special molded parts plus their shipping. The set itself is $400. I'm guessing there is still some savings when all is said and done, but not nearly enough to make all that work worth it.

rpm: There are much worse sets. The Star Wars Advent calendar is per piece more expensive than this set.

We're going through both the Star Wars Advent calendar AND the Lego Friends Advent calendar right now, and I'm feeling pretty ripped-off by both. The Friends calendar art shows a lot of pieces that aren't actually included (but are available for separate purchase) and it comes with only 2 of the Friends-style mini-figures out of 24 days. The rest of the days have included some pretty lame filler, such as one day only being a pair of skis and poles, and another day was nothing to assemble at all, just a small baggie of tiny hair bows and clips, and a brush and blowdryer, all molded in the same random turquoise color and thrown in like an afterthought.

The Star Wars calendar at least comes with 9 minifigs, but it still seems like the past few days have been one bland, 7 or 8 piece mini-ship after another. I picked this up at a half-off sale at my local Lego store, and it wasn't worth it,. If I'd paid the full $50 retail price for this thing I'd be writing Lego to complain. Or b#tching more on the internet. Either one.

Arkanaut:I like how Jayne's hat is now the single most recognizable article of clothing on that show.

/Was it in any episodes other than "The Message"?

The Message

was the last episode they filmed, so no. The hat was not in any other episode :)

I don't think it was in the movie either, but it is in a fun little skit on one of the DVDs from the show where Adam Baldwin sings The Hero Of Canton.

One of the problems with a 13-episode entire run of a show is, things that would be throw-away lines in other series become iconic things. Jayne's Hat is one. Another is the phrase "Big Damn Heroes." That was said once, off-handedly, in one of the more forgettable episodes. Now the more firefly-obsessed just refer to the whole crew as that, as if it was their official name.

well if it was official LEGO that would be close to the actual price. LEGOs are expensive, mainly because they are molded to a 12 micron tolerance process.

Is that what is preventing LEGO from coming out with a line of 3D printers? Or is it just the price for the technology?

It's scary to think about how much money those guys would get from me if I could just download and print out new sets whenever I felt like it.

Yeah, even things like shapeways.com prints to about a 100 micron tolerance . Your typical at home printer even worse. You can built simple thing with printed at home legos but they won't always fit together and structures are more likely to fall apart.

That is damned impressive. I once did the math to figure out how long a scale model of one of the Essex class would have to be to fly real model airplanes and it came in at about 40 feet. Would that I had the cash and time.

I was recently purchasing toys for the good girls and boys on my list and was floored by the Lego sets. First off they are more awesome then is possible to describe in a brief paragraph secondly they are insanely expensive. I was looking at a Lego Star wars kit for Jedi starfighter and it like 80 bucks!!! what the hell Lego!

angry bunny:I was recently purchasing toys for the good girls and boys on my list and was floored by the Lego sets. First off they are more awesome then is possible to describe in a brief paragraph secondly they are insanely expensive. I was looking at a Lego Star wars kit for Jedi starfighter and it like 80 bucks!!! what the hell Lego!

Yeah, pretty much all the decent sized Lego sets that are licensed from things like Star Wars and whatever other movies are pretty expensive. I remember getting my kid a small Milenium Falcon the other year and it was something like $15 and only took like 20 minutes for him to put it together. There's loads of cool larger ones but they start at something like $60.

I like some geeky things, but I don't spend a lot of my time and money trying to collect anything. I believe that the true indicator of nerddom is whether or not you collect stuff that has absolutely no value to anyone other than another nerd.

I'm glad the Browncoats got something nice, but if anyone has any illusion that this will satisfy them and they'll stop begging for Firefly to be un-canceled, you're just fooling yourselves. They will never let go. There's a reason the word "fan" comes from "fanatic", and that we call people who join cults "religious fanatics".

/Yes, I'm saying Browncoats are a cult.//So are Bronies.///And I suppose there's a Simpsons cult out there, too. Poor fools.

I like some geeky things, but I don't spend a lot of my time and money trying to collect anything. I believe that the true indicator of nerddom is whether or not you collect stuff that has absolutely no value to anyone other than another nerd.

I'm glad the Browncoats got something nice, but if anyone has any illusion that this will satisfy them and they'll stop begging for Firefly to be un-canceled, you're just fooling yourselves. They will never let go. There's a reason the word "fan" comes from "fanatic", and that we call people who join cults "religious fanatics".

/Yes, I'm saying Browncoats are a cult.//So are Bronies.///And I suppose there's a Simpsons cult out there, too. Poor fools.

It's hard to relate my positive evaluation of a thing to you if you're actively not ascribing value to it. "One man's trash" I suppose.

I highly value Lego. Like most people in this thread, I think the designer's price for the 'exclusive' is not a good value, and I often balk at the prices of the sets I find in Toy's R Us. But I am also a collector and an enthusiast, so, again, different strokes.